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"Hard work, it seems, and improvements aren't enough
for this fellow. No, he wants there to be a 360
degree turnaround, and he wants it now."

Let me please point out that turning 360 degrees
would take one full circle, and leave one headed in
exactly the same direction. Since looking around is
never a bad idea in considering possible actions, it
is my view that what would be wanted is more like a
900-degree turn, as some snowboarders and skateboard
enthusiasts have tried to teach me, with the result
of facing the other way and getting toward the
reduction of all the bad we've got before us now.

Really, any odd multiple of 180 works great. The even
multiples are not so good.

Having more than a passing familiarity with the
decrepit old man who wrote the letter mentioned in
Lady Liberty's column, let me point out that he's
badly misunderstood. Hard work is a positive value
to him, and any improvements are a blessing.

However, in an earnest discussion of strategy with a
fellow hard-working, condition-improving person, it
was my intention to suggest ideas such as:

(a) traveling less swiftly towards evil is not as
good as turning around;

(b) incrementalists are often pointed to by the
enemies of freedom as indicating that mainstream
views are for some restrictions, and therefore one
may safely dismiss us free market extremists;

(c) thesis-antithesis-synthesis suggests that taking
an extreme position is more likely to result in a
shift toward a workable moderation than taking a
very mild one;

(d) everyone has choices to take, some of which are
more effective than others;

(e) truly effective writers are a rare blessing, and
Lady Liberty is one of these, so seeing her great
abilities put to more effective use would be a great
treasure;

(f) as we are about to see violent rebellions and
brutal repression resulting in vast rivers of blood
being shed here, in our country, near our homes,
while our children look upon these events with their
own eyes, it might be well to share some thoughts
on why some of us choose to act as we do while we
are yet free to do so.

It remains my regret that in my candid letters and
essays, I have been unable to convey any of these
ideas, however fervently it has been my wish to do
so.

Happily, something has come up which promises to
take me away from writing for some weeks to years.
While my desire to express my thoughts now and again
may overwhelm my other drive to fulfill my duties,
the good news is that the working conditions won't
allow nearly as much output. The truly happy news
is the nature of this project, into which I now
expect to disappear.

Those of you not familiar with Media Net might like
a peek at the future promise it holds. If so, the
best thing to do is find a copy of
Neal Stephenson's book on the subject.

> I would warn only of this: Men bury themselves with their
> own thoughts; but they are castrated, and carried away into
> bondage with their words-most especially those relegated
> to a parchment, upon which they have willingly spilled their
> own blood.

The discussion between Dennis Wilson and E.J. Totty sounds like arguments I
sometimes find myself inthe argument gets heated, but when you go back
to basicsit turns out both sides are saying the same thing with slightly
different emphases.

Being a rather under edumacated, slap dash, catch as cat can lefty
Libertarian, I find myself bristling in sympathy every time some one gets
taken to task for not being doctrinaire or pure enough in an "I like
liberty" discussion.

There are very few of us, damned few people who like human beings well
enough to want to trust them with their own lives, property, will, sharp
things and things that go "Bang!".

My best friend, now a Moderate Democrat often gets ahead of me. When I say
"I don't like government, I don't trust it not to hurt people and break
their stuff." he runs out ahead of me and says "There you go, advocating a
firey, blood soaked anarchist revolution!"

So I talk a bit about the Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle and the
Fallacy of the False Choice and my Best Friend says "Yes, but why do you
advocate such violence and chaos?"

So I have to stop and point it out using smaller words

There is a range from 1 to 10
10 is total Big Brother Police state control
3 is Laporte or Freehold
and 1 is Anarch-topia where everyone rules himself
by and large everyone
just leaves everyone else alone.

The U.S. is currently moving from 6 to 7

I want to head for lower numbers. Anyone heading that
way is a friend of mine right now.

Some days I am An Anarcho-Capitalist.

Some days I am a Minarchist

Some days I am HL Mencken.

Some days I am Eyeore and I believe if we found Laporte, Human Beings
version 1.0 couldn't help but screw it up and create a hierarchy. I
sometimes wonder if that crap isn't built into us. Do we long to stand at
the bottom of the Pyramid and Cheer while yet another Bad Guy (tm) gets his
heart ripped out for the One True Diety (whichever one that happens to be)?
I dunno.

I know thisthere are too damned few of us who want to see the scale slide
lower. We can't afford to be sticklers for purity on the matter. There are
too few people who want to direction of control to go down, we can't afford
to throw away any allies or friends or fellow travelers.

Sure when we get to 4 or maybe 3 serious disagreements will start about how
far it should go and what will work.

But right now the majority of the people I speak to think Human Beings are
too stupid and/or evil to be trusted to their own devices without something
to control them. Most people have a very pessmistic view of their
countrymen, their neighbors, their friends, their family and ultimately
themselves.

That's the inertia we're working against. That's the darkness we're trying
to throw some light into.

Shredding a pro-liberty fellow traveller on minor points of semantics ain't
gonna get us there. Running everyone off until there are only the 4 most
ideologically pure left to talk to ain't gonna get us there.

If Liberty isn't a big tentthen isn't it contradicting itself?

I like it when L. Neil Smith and others take the concept of Liberty to an
uncomfortable extrapolation. I like it when E.J Totty does.

I like how that challenges my own comfort zone. I love it when hard core
libertarians make me squirm.

I have real problems when it turns into "And you're not Libertarian Enough."

You know what? I am a Liberty lover if I say I am. I am on this side if I
say I am. That's not for you to define or determine or decide.

Just as I realize thatI realize that this is really the only viable
criteria to be a Libertarian. Anything else, any litmus test or Libertarian
Purity Test just gives too much power to whoever is making up the test and t
hat contradicts itself.

I am claiming a seat at the libertarian table, of my own free will, because
that's where I want to be. I am not going to apologize for being uncertain,
agnostic, undecided or anything I actually think.

A really great article! If there were only one thing you were remiss about, it's the utterly insane level of 'public school' crap lain upon each child to 'learn' (to become inculcated with the pretend knowledge of) certain subjectslest they fail miserably otherwise.

Here in the late, great state of Washington, the kids must endure the WASL, or 'Washington Assessment of Student Learning.'

See? It's like this: It doesn't matter whether a student has mastered math, Language (a euphemism for English), or other necessary intellectual achievement.
No, rather it bears directly upon whether those kids have mastered the politically extremist mind set of the current fuehrer who happens to run the State 'education system.'

Lest the scent of pragmatism enter in too strongly,
let me preface my comments by saying that I agree
with Joseph that a national sales tax would be
a pernicious evil. His other comments on various
taxes are well taken, although "corporate" taxes
would doubtless be applied to individual companies
even if the business men and women were to choose
to remain free from the ties a corporation makes
with the state. Any corporation tax would be borne
by the poorest as well, since companies would pass
the costs along to consumers. As well, his list
is incomplete as Joseph neglected to mention the
most powerful tax of all, monetary inflation, which
is going to devastate the poor in the next few
years in ways to make the various hyperinflations
of the 20th Century look like walks in the park.

A national sales tax is a bad idea, but it won't
get implemented any time soon. If it is nothing
more than a way for Bob to give voice to criticisms
of the income tax without seeming to be for
immediately closing down every government agency,
then it is a useful tool. If it is only a foil for
engaging people in critical thinking about how much
government they wish to pay for, and how they would
wish to pay for it, then it is an excellent tool.

As we have seen in other countries which have had
this same debate, the result is always the same. A
national sales tax or "value added tax" (VAT) is
proposed as an alternative to income tax, then is
"phased in," and then stays around, while the income
tax is never removed. Having met Bob Smither and
having worked with him on some projects during my
time in Texas, I feel confident in his alertness
and intelligence. He isn't going to encourage the
addition of a national sales tax on top of income
tax, any more than his personal support for the idea
is going to cause the heavens to open up and the
bill to be passed through Congress.

As we all know, there are enormous lobbies which are
eager to keep, extend, and further confuse the income
tax. Tax lawyers and tax preparers are among the
very wealthy lobbies interested in this issue. There
are also strong, organized lobbies within the
government employees unions, the defense contractors
and baby killers generally, and the other agencies
which profit from the tax and spend policies. It
seems inevitable that the pernicious evils of the
Progressive Movementinstitutional racism, the
progressive income tax, foreign interventionism,
and the Federal Reserve System, among othersare
going to take nearly as long to root out and
remove as they took to develop, fester, grow, and
graft themselves onto our society.

To be sure, Bob Smither is not a perfect man. He
has erred, I think, in calling for a national sales
tax, and it seems inevitable he's erred in other
ways. However, I was in Nick Lampson's district,
I have heard Steve Stockman speak in person, and I
would take Bob Smither any day. Moreover, I think
Bob is basically a good guy. He always impressed
me as smart without the deficit of arrogance. I
also observed him working hard for the cause of
freedom. His successful campaign for Congress would,
I believe, be a valuable addition to the progress
toward a free and prosperous future.

Having said as much, I have no plans to vote for him,
nor for anyone else. As Dennis Wilson has pointed
out, to vote for a candidate is initiatory force. As I've pointed out in my essay on
the Madness of Voting,
there is nothing about the process that would make me more
free. As a sovereign individual, I am committed to
not forcing anyone else to accept a choice without
consent, and the election process does just that to
all non-voters, and a good many voters.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that those of us who have
met Bob Smither and have gotten to know him through
the experience of working with him should stand up and
speak on his behalf. He is earnest, he is caring,
he is hard working, smart, alert, and nobody's fool.
Moreover, I found him to be genuinely likable and
decent.

There's nothing wrong with criticizing his policy
choices. There's nothing wrong with not voting for
him nor anyone else. There's also nothing to fear
from a Congressman Bob Smither. As with Ron Paul,
we won't find him perfect, but we'll be blessed to
have him in Congress, standing up for decency,
freedom, and the constitutional limits to power.

As we'll be experiencing widespread violent rebellions
in a few years, it's probably academic at this point
who serves in Congress. I wish Bob the very best of
good fortune in all his endeavours. Of all the men
and women of the Texas Libertarian Party experiences
that I encountered, I can think of no more suitable
knight I would rather see charging the windmills than
he.